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Michael D. Prysner (born June 15, 1983) is an American socialist activist. He is a U.S. Army veteran who served in Iraq and Syria as a specialist.[1][2] His duties in Iraq included ground surveillance, home raids, and interrogation of prisoners. According to Prysner, these experiences led him to take an anti-war stance.[3]

Education and military career

Prysner is a graduate of Sickles High School in Tampa, Florida, and Florida Atlantic University.[4][5]

Prysner joined the U.S. Army in 2001 under the Delayed Entry Program when he was 17 and left the military in 2005.[6] He had basic training at Fort Sill in Lawton, Oklahoma[4] and was assigned to the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum in New York. Prysner’s company participated in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and he served there for 12 months. While in the Army Prysner attained the rank of Specialist.[7][6]

Activism

Prysner is the executive director of the Center on Conscience and War (CCW; as of 2026)[8] and the co-founder of March Forward!, an organization of active-duty members of the U.S. military and veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars that encourages active-duty service personnel to resist deployment and seek an honorable discharge by being a conscientious objector.[6][9][10]

In March 2008, Prysner was a member of a panel discussing the topic Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan in Maryland.[11][12] Prysner spoke about his time in Iraq as a soldier and his personal views about the two wars.[11]

Prysner is a member of Party for Socialism and Liberation and A.N.S.W.E.R.[13][14] In 2008, he ran a write-in campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives for Florida’s 22nd congressional district.[15][16]

In November 2011, Prysner was arrested in Occupy Los Angeles.[17] He was released after posting bail.[18]

On September 19, 2021, Prysner interrupted former U.S. President George W. Bush‘s speech in Beverly Hills, California.[19][20] Prysner demanded an apology for lying about weapons of mass destruction, connections to 9/11, and causing the deaths of a million Iraqis. He stated “you sent me to Iraq” and “my friends are dead because you lied.”[20]

Prysner is on the National Board of Directors for Veterans for Peace.[7]

Iran War

After the start of the Iran war in February 2026, Prysner reported that the CCW started receiving hundreds of conscientious objector applications from active-duty members of the military—a sharp rise compared to previous years when only about 50 applications were received annually—and that troops were telling the organization that they do not want to be involved in a war that does not align with their values.[8][21] He cited the Minab school attack as the most popular reason provided by service members for filing their applications.[8]

On April 20, 2026, Prysner was among the dozens of veterans and military family members who were arrested for occupying the Cannon House Office Building while protesting the war.[22][23] Just before being arrested, he termed the war “deeply unpopular” and “a crisis” for Trump‘s administration while encouraging conscientious objection among service members.[22]

Media production

Prysner is a producer and co-writer for the program The Empire Files, with his wife Abby Martin.[24][9] English-language Telesur canceled the show in 2018,[25] and it later moved to a web publishing model. Prysner, Martin, and other Telesur contract journalists had their funding blocked by the application of U.S. sanctions against Venezuela. Academic Stuart Davis cites the cancellation as an example of how United States sanctions hamper public funding of media production in Venezuela.[25]

Prysner performed the rap “Skit 6” on Lowkey‘s album Soundtrack to the Struggle.[26][27]

As of 2021, he hosted the Eyes Left podcast with former US Army Cadet and Afghanistan War veteran Spenser Rapone.[28][29]

Personal life

Prysner is married to journalist Abby Martin;[30][31] they have two children together.[32][33]

See also

References

  1. ^ Vigil, Ariana E. (July 10, 2014). War Echoes: Gender and Militarization in U.S. Latina/o Cultural Production. Rutgers University Press. p. 172. ISBN 978-0-8135-6933-8. Retrieved August 13, 2021.
  2. ^ Levinson, Nan (November 10, 2014). War Is Not a Game: The New Antiwar Soldiers and the Movement they Built. Rutgers University Press. p. 227. ISBN 978-0-8135-7113-3. Retrieved August 13, 2021.
  3. ^ “Veterans Group Calls on Military to Refuse Deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq – Salem-News.Com”. www.salem-news.com. Retrieved November 13, 2018.
  4. ^ a b Military News, Tampa Bay Times, July 22, 2001
  5. ^ Dan Christensen, “Ron DeSantis accused of illegal acts of torture against Guantanamo detainees when he was a Navy JAG officer”, Florida Bulldog, January 2023
  6. ^ a b c Aaron Blevins, “Activists’ anti-war fight continues”, Beverly Press Park Labrea News, January 17, 2013
  7. ^ a b The Stream Team (4th April 2014).“‘Beyond 140’: Iraq war vet Michael Prysner on the Fort Hood shooting”. Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on October 9, 2014
  8. ^ a b c Locke, Ashley; Griffin, Grace; Lakshmanan, Indira (April 8, 2026). “What does it mean when U.S. military members become conscientious objectors to war?”. WPRL | Smart Uplifting Fun. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
  9. ^ a b “Mike Prysner”. jacobinmag.com. August 19, 2021. Retrieved October 19, 2021.
  10. ^ “Suicide Is Anything but Painless | Military Suicide Research Consortium”. msrc.fsu.edu. Retrieved October 19, 2021.
  11. ^ a b Decker, Stephanie; Paul, John (January 1, 2013). “The Real Terrorist was Me: An Analysis of Narratives Told by Iraq Veterans Against the War in an Effort to Rehumanize Iraqi Civilians and Soldiers”. Societies Without Borders. 8 (3): 317–343. ISSN 1872-1915.
  12. ^ Iraq Veterans Against the War (2008). Winter soldier, Iraq and Afghanistan : eyewitness accounts of the occupations. Aaron Glantz. Chicago Ill.: Haymarket Books. ISBN 978-1-60846-060-1. OCLC 567850640.
  13. ^ ““Antiwar Sentiment in the Military Is Stronger Than Ever.”“. jacobinmag.com. Retrieved October 19, 2021.
  14. ^ Hassina Leelarathna “Los Angeles Lankans protest UN interference”, Daily News – Sri Lanka, 3 May 2011 Archived 4 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  15. ^ Staff, Liberation. “Congressional candidate, anti-war vet Michael Prysner takes on workers’ issues – Liberation News”. Retrieved October 19, 2021.
  16. ^ Johnson, Khari (August 26, 2008). “Low turnout at Denver protests, Delray Beach Congressional candidate still shows”. South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
  17. ^ Local, Univision. “Univision 34 Los Angeles”. Univision. Archived from the original on April 24, 2012. Retrieved November 13, 2018.
  18. ^ Radio, Southern California Public (December 7, 2011). “16 complaints filed about Occupy LA raid”. Retrieved November 13, 2018.
  19. ^ Empire Files (September 19, 2021). “Iraq Vet Disrupts George W. Bush Speech”. Youtube. Retrieved September 24, 2021.
  20. ^ a b Sabah, Daily (September 21, 2021). “‘You lied about WMDs’: Iraq war veteran blasts Bush in public”. Daily Sabah. Retrieved October 19, 2021.
  21. ^ Carliner, Sam (April 13, 2026). “Trump’s Extreme Use of Military Is Stirring a Crisis of Conscience Among Troops”. Truthout. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
  22. ^ a b Mitchell, Ellen (April 20, 2026). “Dozens of veterans arrested at Capitol during protest against Iran war”.
  23. ^ Bernama (April 21, 2026). “US military veterans protesting Iran war detained on Capitol Hill”. Free Malaysia Today | FMT. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
  24. ^ The Empire Files (TV Series 2015– ) – IMDb, retrieved October 19, 2021
  25. ^ a b Davis, Stuart (2023). Sanctions as War: Anti-Imperialist Perspectives on American Geo-Economic Strategy. Haymarket Books. p. 69. ISBN 978-1-64259-812-4. OCLC 1345216431.
  26. ^ “Skit 6 by Lowkey”. BestEverAlbums.com. Retrieved November 13, 2018.
  27. ^ Lowkey (Ft. Mike Prysner) – Skit 6 (Soundtrack to the Struggle), retrieved October 19, 2021
  28. ^ “Eyes Left Podcast”. SoundCloud. Retrieved October 19, 2021.
  29. ^ “Interview: Mike Prysner And Spenser Rapone, Hosts Of ‘Eyes Left’“. Shadowproof. September 25, 2018. Retrieved October 19, 2021.
  30. ^ US Sanctions Shut Down ‘The Empire Files’ with Abby Martin, scoop.co.nz, September 3, 2018
  31. ^ “Antiwar Sentiment in the Military Is Stronger Than Ever.” An interview with Mike Prysner, jacobinmag.com, August 19, 2021.
  32. ^ Mike Prysner: Early Sunday @AbbyMartin: gave birth to our child. She went into labor marching 9mos pregnant all day with #BlackLivesMatter in Beverly Hills., twitter.com, June 2, 2020
  33. ^ Mike Prysner [@MikePrysner] (February 3, 2023). “On Sunday @AbbyMartin gave birth to our second child :) Abby & baby are doing great and I’m in awe of how amazing they both are 💕” (Tweet). Retrieved April 13, 2023 – via Twitter.